President Donald Trump’s education secretary repeatedly referred to artificial intelligence as “A1”—like the popular steak sauce—instead of “AI” during a panel on artificial intelligence in education.
“I wish I could remember the source, but there’s a school system that’s going to start making sure that first graders or even pre-Ks have A1 teaching every year starting that far down in the grades,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon, 76, said at a summit put on by Silicon Valley investors in California on Tuesday.
It wasn’t a one-off.
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A few moments later, McMahon said, “Kids are sponges. They just absorb everything. It wasn’t all that long ago that it was, ‘Oh, we’re gonna have internet in our schools, woo.’ Now, let’s see A1 and how can that be helpful.”
Her fellow panelists, whose companies utilize AI, nodded along.
Making the situation even more bizarre, McMahon pronounced “AI” correctly earlier during the same panel discussion. The Education Department didn’t respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment on the secretary’s apparent mistake.
McMahon, a Trump loyalist who led the Small Business Administration during his first term, was a controversial pick for education secretary given her lack of experience in education. She was formerly the chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, which she founded with now-estranged husband Vince McMahon.
Last month, Trump signed an executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education, arguing that education should be left entirely to the states.
Back in February, he said that McMahon’s primary task in her role is to oversee the destruction of the agency she is leading.
“I told Linda, ‘I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job,‘” Trump said. “I want her to put herself out of a job.”
